Carbon Biogeochemistry Workshop

February 24 - 26, 2009
Bergen, Norway

In February, supposedly the worst time to visit the rainiest city in Europe, six ISOS PhD candidates embarked on a journey to Bergen, Norway, to learn all about carbon biogeochemistry. However, luck was at their side. After a rainy weekend that nearly drowned them in the streets on their nightly foraging trips, the clouds cleared in time for the start of the workshop. The venue was held in the Strand Hotel at the harbor with view onto the fish market. Initially the workshop was set up for a few of the EPOCA early researchers, but as the demand became so high, it was opened up to all interested PhD students which ended in a group of about 40 researchers from all over the world (including a girl that came all way from Australia!).

On day one, the workshop started with lectures on CO₂ trends in the past and future and ended with interesting talks on physiological processes of autotrophic carbon assimilation, biogenic calcification and the role of microbes in the carbon cycle. In the evening there was a poster session that gave the students the opportunity to learn about each other's research topics and ample time for networking.

The second day, carbonate chemistry was further drilled into our brains with talks on the inorganic carbon cycle, methods to measure the system along with appropriate pH scales and carbonic acid dissociation constants. After learning about the best practices for measuring and calculating the carbonate system, practical exercises were undertaken where we learned to operate CO2SYS correctly.

The third and last day was spent with an interactive session on education and outreach. We talked about what we could do to get the community more involved in the CO₂ issue and researchers described their rewarding experiences of interacting with schools. This was a nice ending to a great workshop. It is so important that researchers collaborate to set common methodological standards as well as share their experiences and plans for future experiments. There's a scientific community out there, we need only to join in.

Thanks again to ISOS for co-funding us to attend this great workshop!

Andrea Frommel
Kerstian Suffrian
Dennis Rossoll
Yasmin Appelhans
Christian Pansch